Edge Lit LED Sign: Custom Wall Lamp
An Edge lit LED sign is a pretty straight forward project where we CNC laser engrave acrylic and then slide it into an aluminium frame (in this case) with electronics along the edge(s).
CNCROi.com uses its Austrian wide-format industrial laser to quickly engrave into the quarter-inch or 6 mm thick acrylic.
The white powder you see forming under the laser is actually vaporized acrylic but unlike cutting through acrylic, there isn’t any fire involved, we want to vaporize the acrylic, not melt it for this edge lit LED sign application.
If you just wanted an acrylic frame minus the LED signage, check out how one of the signs behind me on most of the videos at CNCROi.com.
As we are using a high precision CNC laser to accomplish this custom branding onto the acrylic, everything is sharply details and totally repeatable due to CNCROi.com‘s on-demand approach towards custom fabrication, this edge lit LED sign is no different in that regard.
As to how much material is being vaporized, for this application, it roughly 1/16″ or 1.5 mm, we can go deeper or shallower using CNCROi.com‘s Austrian laser but with edge lit LED signage, ANY surface abrasion much less engraving is clearly visible.
CNCROi.com has the majority of our customers across North America and as such, I’m slowly building-out different flags, here’s the USA!
As this amazing skull was being laser engraved, great care was taken to make sure there was a consistent engraving depth across the entire acrylic and that the bottom of the engraving was even throughout for optimal results on this edge lit LED sign.
All that powder you see building up is easily removed, it has the same consistency as flower as it’s incredibly fine, it just looks worse than it really is during the engraving process as it slowly builds-up across the surface and within the engraving of the edge lit LED sign.
There are lots of options when it comes to acrylic signage, here’s a more conventional CNCROi.com sign using a few different techniques that you may notice we used for this LED sign.
After the engraving is complete on this edge lit LED sign, it’s time to cut it out from the quarter-inch or 6 mm thick clear acrylic, that’s why you see the light shinning from underneath which is actually a very intense and strong flame.
Acrylic is basically gas in solid form and as such, highly flammable so yet again, great care is taken to make sure the fire doesn’t get out of control using several different precautions.
When it comes to acrylic, CNCROi.com is capable of making some amazing high detailed work from coasters to keychains.
The custom edge lit LED sign is now complete, fully CNC laser engraved and cut out from the sheet of acrylic from whilst it came.
Here’s what it looks like before the protective masking is removed at the CNCROi.com shop.
CNCROi.com is also able to color change acrylic in order to produce a high-contrast yet permanent result, generally for this, we use black acrylic as it comes out the best with a bright off-white.
Of course, for this project, we wanted a red backing for added effect rather than a “see through” and thus some MDF was cut using the same laser as we used for the acrylic work on the edge lit LED sign.
We’ve showcased LOTS OF MDF here at CNCROi.com‘s website and related videos, it’s a great material for a wide variety of applications.
CNCROi.com makes lots of other items using acrylic, from animal shapes which you can view in our shapes library within the BUY ONLINE header on our website.
After the electronics are integrated into the custom aluminium frame along with the LED panels on both edges (in this case), it’s time to slide into the frame the acrylic that was laser engraved and cut earlier.
Followed by the MDF that’s now painted with a red enamel for a wonderful background to contrast the clear white LEDs.
If you are wondering about CNCROi.com‘s capabilities when it comes to custom acrylic jewelry, check this out!
Turning it on for the first time, the results are pretty spectacular and very energy-efficient!
Even with the edge lit LED sign turned off, the results look great.
Here’s another sign I made a while back, this time a see-through version of a similar frame to the one I showcased so you can get an idea of what’s possible when it comes to custom edge lit LED sign made by CNCROi.com.
Want a custom edge lit LED sign? Contact CNCROi.com right now!